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Spherical Cow is a metaphor for highly simplified scientific models of reality. The phrase comes from a joke about theoretical physicists: Milk production at a dairy farm was low so the farmer wrote to the local university, asking help from academia. A multidisciplinary team of professors was assembled, headed by a theoretical physicist, and two weeks of intensive on-site investigation took place. The scholars then returned to the university, notebooks crammed with data, where the task of writing the report was left to the team leader. Shortly thereafter the farmer received the write-up, and opened it to read on the first line: "Consider a spherical cow. . . ." As with any mathematical joke, it is told in many variants. From: emc-p...@ieee.org [mailto:emc-p...@ieee.org] On Behalf Of Price, Edward Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 12:17 PM To: emc-p...@ieee.org Subject: RE: Cables On The Floor > -----Original Message----- > From: emc-p...@ieee.org [mailto:emc-p...@ieee.org] On Behalf > Of John Woodgate > Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 12:21 AM > To: emc-p...@ieee.org > Subject: Re: Cables On The Floor > > In message > <9d04b979323dcd428297dda95108893e0120c...@bb-corp-ex2.corp.cubic.cub>, > dated Tue, 9 Dec 2008, "Price, Edward" <ed.pr...@cubic.com> writes: > > >You would think that the odds of stepping on the cable would > be 285 to 1. > > You might, initially, but think about this. To make the math > easier, assume a square room and 289 footprints (17^2). So > there are 24 footprints along a diagonal. Lay a cable along > that diagonal, and all 24 footprints cover it, to a greater > or lesser extent. Then there are 23 new footprints along the > other diagonal, then 15 new ones along each side... So with 6 > cables we have 107 footprints on them, out of 289. > > Admittedly, this includes 'spherical cow' type > approximations, but it shows a trend. > -- > John Woodgate, J M Woodgate and Associates, Rayleigh, Essex UK I'll defer to your logic, as I was sick the day they explained combinations and permutations to us. BTW, I'm almost afraid to ask, but what's a "spherical cow"? I think that might great to be able to authoritatively cite that in my next lab status report! Ed Price ed.pr...@cubic.com WB6WSN NARTE Certified EMC Engineer Electromagnetic Compatibility Lab Cubic Defense Applications San Diego, CA USA 858-505-2780 Military & Avionics EMC Is Our Specialty - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <emc-p...@ieee.org> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc Graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. can be posted to that URL. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <emcp...@ptcnh.net> Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <j.bac...@ieee.org> David Heald: <dhe...@gmail.com> _________________________ LECO Corporation Notice: This communication may contain confidential information intended for the named recipient(s) only. If you received this by mistake, please destroy it and notify us of the error. Thank you. - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <emc-p...@ieee.org> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc Graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. can be posted to that URL. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <emcp...@ptcnh.net> Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher <j.bac...@ieee.org> David Heald <dhe...@gmail.com>
